Updates on UK Plastic Production and New Releases!

Hudson here!

As you know we pivoted fast and hard as soon as Trump's tariffs came into play and quickly set up plastic manufacturing in the UK to complement what we were already doing here in the US. For a couple months now we have been transitioning so that all products made in the USA are only sold in the USA and all products being sold anywhere else in the world are made in the UK. This effectively keeps all our fine customers (YOU!) tariff-free. 

Bottoms of the Boneblades boxes. Both printed in the UK but plastic made in both the USA and UK. We keep all the addresses on there because we're "fancy".

This change has mostly allowed us to avoid the tariff "stuff" but as you are seeing across the global economy they are wreaking havoc. Many of our prices have risen - printing, plastic itself, shipping, etc. and we have been holding firm against raising our own prices (which have been static since 2019). We have been working on an analysis of cost changes across the board and how they reflect on our margins and product pricing. We will have a better understanding of those differences in the next several days as we work through this with our accountants (yay, so fun! says guy who just wants to make toy soldiers!)

But, that's not what this little article is REALLY about! What I'm here to discuss today is UK production and all those new releases that are DYING to get out into the world! 

We have MANY sets basically done and awaiting injection in the UK. That was for attention. Now check all these out: 

And these don't even include the ones we have out in the US that have not yet released in the rest of the world: Satyrs, Deck Bases, and the really awesome (if I do say so myself!) Dark Ages Army Builder! 

Here's why: I made a mistake when I set up our UK injection operation. I underestimated how much production we'd need. In the US we run 2 of our large mold bases (the ones that produce 151mm x 223mm frames) and one of our small mold bases (the one that produces 113mm x 151mm frames). (We only put the small mold base into play earlier this year. We already have about 20 molds built on that format where 100+ are the larger format. As we grow we will probably need additional small mold bases in both facilities.) 

Large and small mold base

In the UK we started with one of each, but I underestimated some of the learning curve needed to run our molds. Each mold that arrives in the UK needs to be tested and dialed in to optimal levels of crispness and detail and cycle time. This takes time and takes the mold base out of operation so that it is unable to run actual production. 

When I realized this, I immediately had our engineers make two more mold bases - a small and a large. Those two arrive in the UK next week. BUT - that wasn't going to be enough so we are building two additional large mold bases right now that will be in the UK at the end of the month. 

We have also ordered an additional two EOATs (robot arms that take the injected frame from the mold base to a stack ready for packing). We will now have four of these: 

"You heard 'im right...we're using robots!"

This will allow us to achieve the following in our UK facility: four molds running production at once (either 3 large and 1 small or 2 large, 2 small) while also giving us two additional mold bases to test and dial in injection on new molds coming in from engineering. 

This will dramatically speed up operations...if only I had thought of it in May! 

In better news we are overjoyed with the level of quality and crispness of our UK injection. The team has taken it above and beyond. With this new capacity in place, they will be running at full throttle. 

In the UK we are doing a mix of restocks and new production. The Barons' War set will be back on order this week (already available in the US). Mounted Knights and Mounted Serjeants along with the Classic Fantasy Battles Dwarven Host, Grognard restock, and the Civilians/Survivors Men are up very soon.

We will continue to release products as soon as they are available in each warehouse with the goal to get into sync with global release dates before the summer is over. We're getting there slowly but surely!

Thanks again for your patience with us through this wild and wacky transition. We're also working The Damned crowdfund campaign production into the mix (almost completely done in the US except for a broken Heavy Infantry mold that had to be repaired) and soon those molds will be running in the UK too. And VERY soon after that we will have The Damned available to everyone (at least some of it!) Like this bad boy: 

Thanks for sticking with me this far. Lots of irons in the fire but all with tremendous forward motion. We have something like 40 releases that are either done tooling or in the process right now. We're building a tremendous pipeline for the rest of the year and into 2026 where we may - finally - maybe? - hopefully! - hit my goal of one new hard plastic set a week.

And the rest of this year and early 2026 will also see the following games come to life:

• Heiho: The Mass Battle Samurai Game (boxes printing now!)
• Death Fields Arena - the 28mm fast and furious skirmish game
• Classic Fantasy Battles - which will also see a bunch of 10mm plastic sets out in the lead up
• Shattered Union - the 28mm 2nd American Civil War game
• Leuthen: the 10mm Seven Years War game
• a new Quar game (or two?) 
• some other 28mm historical games
• and more! 

Onward!